Quote:
|
Originally Posted by ubertuber
To be more succinct, I don't think what I'm talking about is determined or defined by race, although there is a huge overlapping incidence. It's more tightly encapsulated by geography and class.
|
Yes, so hugely overlapping that it's not very productive to seperate the the three: race, geography, and class.
A few things that might give you more insight of the factors in the argument you are making:
1) primarily, it's what would be called a culture of poverty, which has been empirically studied out of the dominant texts because
a) researchers found that people cycle in and out of poverty; the most impoverished rarely stay there intergenerationally
b) researchers found that poor parents, by and large, are supportive of 'decent' values and try to instill them in their kids. No one *wants* their kids to be in danger or in prison (perhaps you could point to *an* example or two, but hopefully we don't start picking nits to make our points)
c) (and I'd think you would have experienced this first hand given the context you just wrote you grew up in) That the poorest are often the most hardworking, intent on succeeding, capitalist, horatio algersist people I meet.
Whether their social context buttresses those beliefs is a sererate question that ought not denigrate their value system (as if it were different than "ours")...
there is a branch of criminological theory that interrogates this disjuncture between desire to succeed and means to do so called "strain theory" kicked off by Robert Merton, followed by Cloward and Ohlin and Cohen. So if you are interested in such things I'm writing about, you could pick up a crim theory reader and it would have summations of those theories. It wouldn't take a lot of read time to go over such a book, and not hard to find at any bookstore....just ask for an entry level criminology theory book and you should be directed right to something relevant.
If you're interested, this is the book I used for my comprehensive exams studying:
http://www.amazon.com/Juvenile-Delin...6670262&sr=1-1
It's $6! A jewel of a book as it has the actual writings of the theorists, instead of summations of them
Anyway, when we talk about poor education we should not do so without recognizing the ramifications of not providing enough seats, books, pencils, and now even computers should be considered necessary items for students. Is that the culture's fault or a social issue? attributed more to insane funding policies or recalcitrant students?
When we discuss safe/unsafe neighborhoods, we should do so with the caveat that even police know that in the highest crime "ridden" areas, only a small, TINY portion of the ZIP code accounts for the majority of the crime. I don't have my sources in front of me, but I'm talking about even in the most high crime areas, only ~3% of the addresses account for over 90% of the crime...this isn't one of those stats on the fly deal, this is empirically grounded analysis that I've done myself and can produce the sources if necessary, but once again, the factual information is available freely and widely enough that anyone interested could check without difficulty.
This whole discussion revolving around hip-hop and rap is interested to me because:
1) even the vilest hiphop and rap on the RADIO, the public airwaves, doesn't repeat Nigger, Ho, or Bitch, or Cunt. That kind of shit is edited out and you have to buy albums with "Explicit Content" labels on it after a controversial public campaign to require such labeling back in the day of the likes of public enemy and 2livecrew, among others, that were arrested/harassed/fined for their performances.
2) the dominant forces in the recording industry are white producers and the bulk of sales go to white consumers. I'm not "blaming whitey" but I am claiming that there is a slew of pro-social rap, even gangta rap, that simply doesn't get produced, promoted, or played. And people who fail to recognize that do so primarily because they haven't been exposed to its existence, which is unfortunate...
But all that said, I'd claim that a black Harlemite is about as likely as a white dude in minniesodah to dream of floating on an 80ft yacht while sipping mimosas...but that doesn't mean either one isn't a firm believer in the culture of success. More likely they just realize the reality of their social situations
exempting, of course, southern californians since we are, by and large, a delusional bunch that is most likely attributed to hubris and simulacra given our climate and hollywood/disneyland proximity! But shit, coss compare Biggie's "Things done changed [if I wasn't in the rap game, I'd be in the crack game] to anything coming out of west coast rap [a la Snoop or Mr. Doctor] and you'll see just how different these perspectives can be about the world arond them....